This is probably destined to be a short one. I just had a thought today. There have been many religions in this world that have waxed and waned on prominence and then left only hints of their existence: The Polytheistic religions of Europe; the Norse named the days of the week but are worshiped no longer; the Greek Gods live on in popular imagining but have become nothing more than pretty stories to fuel our collective imaginations. The Roman versions of those Gods were the dominant religion throughout Europe until an Emperor decided they weren't anymore and this Yahweh was gonna take over.
What I'm getting at is that all religions rise and fall. Even Judaism and Hinduism which are exceptionally old are less than half the age of Modern Humans and their first forays into trying to explain the universe and have many fewer members now than they did in their respective heights. Christianity is top dog right now and assumes it will stay that way until some end time thats a-coming soon. That however is a fallacy. Christianity will have it's arc the same as any other faith.
Here's why. While religions follow a rise and fall pattern, Imperical knowledge is ultimately cumulative, while some is lost in the various and sundry dark ages it ultimately is recovered and added upon. This gives it a lasting nature that religions can't match. Religions and science started as the search for answers. Both used observational data to explain their world. Lightening strikes, when the clouds sound loud like someone yelling...something must be yelling and throwing lightening. But then we figure out that there is no big man yelling. Those who can handle the idea that they were wrong and accept the data presented them are the scientists the rationalists, the atheists. Those that can't ...they are the Zealots, the evangelisits, the fundamentalists, the blind.
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